Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

December 15, 2017

An Economic Lesson from the Biblical Joseph, by Way of Friedrich Hayek

How ancient Egypt’s economic centralization paved the road for Israelite slavery.

In this week’s Torah reading, Joseph becomes the second most powerful man in Egypt after successfully interpreting Pharaoh’s dream as a portent of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Tasked with preparing the country for the lean years, Joseph acquires enough surplus grain during the fat ones to feed the people for the duration of the famine. In what happens next, Jonathan Sacks finds an important insight about economics and freedom:

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